Although we’re still scratching our heads over the puzzling contradictions of Ringing Bells’ Freedom 251, the Indian company reports that they have received almost 50 million registrations since pre-ordering went live earlier this week. Ringing Bells wasn’t quite ready for such a large demand, but they will be shipping the 2.5 million devices they have at the ready on a first come, first serve basis. The company hopes to start this batch of deliveries by April 10th at the latest, and the run should be completed by the end of June.

See also:

The $4 smartphone Freedom 251 will run Lollipop (update)

February 19, 2016

The Freedom 251 rocked the internet when it was first unveiled, with the site having to shut down due to overwhelming traffic. The smartphone that cost less than a cup of Starbucks coffee made headlines all across the tech world, and reporters rushed to get their hands on the surprisingly well-specced device as soon as possible. Which is when things got a little… weird.

Early receivers of the “preview version” of the device were puzzled to find a glop of Wite-Out smeared across the front of their new hyper-inexpensive smartphone. Scraping the Wite-Out away revealed that the device was actually the Adcom Ikon 4 in a (very poor) disguise. Adcom has reported that they were unaware that their branding or products were being used this way and that they are looking into the matter. Since the Adcom Ikon 4 is a $54 device, speculation abounds as to how Ringing Bells is making any money off this rodeo. Some have suggested that the device may come loaded with spyware that could be useful for data harvesting.

See also:

That $4 smartphone is sketchy as hell

February 19, 2016

While it’s difficult to be disappointed by something you only threw $4 at, reviewers were also let down to discover that the Freedom 251 looked nothing like what Ringing Bells had advertised on their website. Images on the page have since been altered to more accurately depict the device’s appearance.

Photo by Vishal Mathur

Perhaps most mysterious of all is the fact that many of the device’s icons have been robbed wholesale from the iPhone. The stock browser, for instance, is represented on the home screen by the Safari icon. Why the company would risk possible copyright infringement accusations for the sake of homescreen icons is anyone’s guess.

Ringing Bells says that the devices seen by reviewers were just “preview versions” of the device, and that the real Freedom 251 won’t be quite so mysterious. Adding to the controversy, the Indian Cellular Association is appealing the telecom ministry and insisting that the government investigate Ringing Bells. They claim that selling a smartphone this cheap simply isn’t possible.

What are your thoughts on the puzzling Freedom 251? Some kind of bizarre scam, or the perfect solution for low-income, entry-level smartphone users? Let us know what you think in the comments below!

Earlier this week, Indian smartphone maker Ringing Bells unveiled their record-setting Freedom 251, an Android device that had some astounding specs for its unbelievable $3.64 price tag (Rs. 251). There was so much fervor over the device’s release that Times of India described the rush for pre-orders as “breaking the internet.” Now that people are actually getting their hands on the device, however, the whole thing is looking pretty damn sketchy. Right out of the box, you know something’s not right when your new phone has a blob of Wite-Out cleverly concealing the name of the device’s actual manufacturer.

Photo by Vishal Mathur

That’s right: the Freedom 251 is actually the Adcom Ikon 4, an entry-level Chinese smartphone. Not only is this a scam, but it’s one where the scam artist isn’t even trying! What’s more, the device looks nothing like the smartphone advertised on Ringing Bells’ website.

Via Ars Technica

Fortunately, Ringing Bells noticed the discrepancy and made the appropriate changes. Not to the phone, of course, but to their website.

Via Ars Technica.

There! Much better.

This raises some interesting questions, seeing as the Adcom Ikon 4 normally retails for $54 dollars. How Ringing Bells is making any money selling these devices at 1/14th of that figure is anyone’s guess. And that’s not even taking into consideration the cost of Wite-Out.

See also:

The $4 smartphone Freedom 251 will run Lollipop (update)

February 19, 2016

The mysteries keep coming, however, because when you boot up the device, you’ll discover a familiar sight… if you’ve ever been an iPhone user. Although the Freedom 251/Adcom Ikon 4 runs Android 5.1 Lollipop, for some reason most of the icons have been ripped directly from iOS. Hell, the browser icon is just straight up the Safari logo.

Photo by Gadgets 360

Adcom says that they had no idea their branding and products were being used for this and that they are beginning to investigate the matter. In the meantime, Ringing Bells is telling journalists not to worry, and that the device they’ve received is “just a preview version.” Oh, that explains everything then.

Mainstream manufacturers such as Samsung, LG and HTC all offer handsets at the entry-level market, but these are usually designed with profits in mind, resulting in lower specs than is possible at the price tag. By comparison, carriers often offer better specs but couple them with large amounts of bloatware that ultimately results in a poorer experience.

Over the past couple of years, carriers in the UK have been progressively branching out by offering better handsets at reasonable prices (instead of focusing on an affordable price tag) and on paper, the Vodafone Smart Ultra 6 definitely achieves this by combining premium specs with a price point that should be affordable for all.

What does the handset bring to the table and is this a smartphone you should be considering as your next phone? Let’s take a look, in this in-depth Vodafone Smart Ultra 6 review.

Design

In terms of design, the Smart Ultra 6 definitely looks like a handset where the end goal was a reasonable price tag. While this isn’t necessarily a bad thing in the context of the Smart Ultra 6 as a whole, it does mean that you’re left with a very uninspiring design that is essentially just a large grey slate with a couple of unique features.

Measuring 154 x 77 mm, the handset is definitely on the larger side, and at 8.4 mm thick, it’s one of the thicker handsets. Given the price tag though, it was unlikely we would get a smartphone that aims to rival the race to be the thinnest smartphone (which is currently the Vivo V5 Max at 4.75 mm thick).

The two unique parts of the Smart Ultra 6 design are both good and bad; on the positive side, the middle of the three capacitive buttons beneath the display is the home button which doubles up as a notification light by flashing when you have an unread item. On the other side however, the handset has a contoured edge which is definitely strange, as it is a unibody device and the contoured edge goes against the concept of a unibody design.

While the Smart Ultra 6 is definitely not the sleekest or most interesting looking smartphone, the design is functional and the 159 grams’ weight ensures the handset feels comfortable and sturdy in the hand. Despite the plastic rear that aims to look like metal from afar – which it doesn’t by the way – the handset is somewhat resistant to scratching and has a premium feel in the hand that you might not expect.

Overall, the Smart Ultra 6 design definitely meets the target that Vodafone were going for. A hybrid of the ZTE Blade S6 and Blade S6 Plus, the Smart Ultra 6 takes the best parts of ZTE’s smartphones and improves them to deliver an impressive, if uninspiring, design.

Display

One of the biggest positives on the Smart Ultra 6 specs list is the display as this is where Vodafone have set a new benchmark; the handset is affordable yet offers a Full HD display that many other handsets fail to offer at even higher price tags.

The 5.5-inch panel uses IPS technology and the Full HD resolutions delivers a very impressive 401 pixels per inch density. As a comparison, the Huawei Honor 6 Plus also offers a 5.5-inch Full HD display with the same pixel density, but costs more than double the price in the UK.

Like several affordable smartphones, Vodafone haven’t delivered a bezel free experience with large bezels all around the display resulting in a slightly less premium experience. This are a couple of very minor drawbacks as the 70.3% screen-to-body ratio is certainly higher than a lot of smartphones at this price point. The handset is definitely a fingerprint magnet but these are small issues that don’t detract away too much from the overall experience.

Overall, the Smart Ultra 6 display is certainly impressive as it is large and vibrant, which is even more surprising given the reasonable price tag. It’s not the best display on the market as sunlight legibility is a little suspect but overall, definitely impressive given the handset’s target market.

Performance

Under the hood is where the Smart Ultra 6 is slightly inferior to higher priced competitors (albeit not very much at all) as it is powered by an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 processor with four cores clocked at 1.5GHz and four more at 1.0 GHz. The handset is certainly not the fastest on the market but more than makes up for this with clever software optimisations and a healthy 2GB RAM.

The Smart Ultra 6 also comes with an Adreno 405 Graphical Processing Unit (GPU) and while there were certainly a few examples of slow game loading times and the odd missed frame in the middle of resource intensive games, overall graphics performance was certainly more than satisfactory. For most users, the processor, RAM and GPU will all be more than ample for daily usage.

One of the biggest decisions in the Smart Ultra 6 is the software as – apart from a few preloaded apps that can be disabled or uninstalled – Vodafone have opted for stock Android. In hindsight, the decision proves to be completely justified as the handset shows no signs of slow down even with lots of data installed and real-world performance in on-par with most flagship smartphones. The internal storage is 16GB with around 10-11 GB available to use and while this isn’t a lot, the microSD card slot will allow you to expand this as much as you need.

While most carrier branded handsets come with as much preloaded bloatware as possible, the Smart Ultra 6 bucks the trend and as a results, delivers performance and the Android experience as Google imagined it to be. If you’re looking for a low-cost handset that’s almost a blank slate for you to customise as you see fit, the Smart Ultra 6 is a good bet and is a shining example the experience that all carrier-branded devices (or any other smartphone really) should deliver.

Hardware

One of the key things that sets the Vodafone Smart Ultra 6 apart from the competition is the impressive specs list; most reasonably priced smartphones tend to be a result of several compromises in the various design stages but the Smart Ultra 6 has very few – if any – compromises in the impressive hardware.

The handset is LTE Cat 4 enabled offering download speeds of up to 150Mbps and upload speeds of up to 50Mbps when connected to a compatible network. The handset does keep locked to LTE fairly well and it has a strong antenna with very few examples of dropped calls and/or signal issues. The handset is surprisingly pleasant to use on a call as the earpiece speaker delivers rich sound that’s loud enough for most scenarios but the rear facing speaker leaves a little to be desired and can be muffled when held in your hand.

The handset comes with a 3000 mAh battery, which – despite the contoured edges which suggest otherwise – is non-removable, but the battery capacity itself is definitely commendable as it is on par with most premium smartphones. The large capacity is also reflected in the battery life, with the Smart Ultra 6 delivering an average of 14-16 hours with heavy usage on a single charge, including around four hours’ screen-on-time. For low users, the standby time is between three and four days and overall, the battery life should definitely be enough for all but the heaviest of users.

No compromises...

Carrier branded devices have usually compromised somewhere but looking at the Smart Ultra 6 specs list, it’s difficult to list one feature that’s a bad compromise. The handset doesn’t have all the features of a handset like the Galaxy S6 that costs nearly four times the price but this is to be expected and given the target market, the Smart Ultra 6 hardware is certainly impressive.

Camera

Smartphone cameras are proving to be ever important with manufacturers focusing on delivering not only a large megapixel count but also optimised algorithms to produce the best smartphone camera possible. Given the eventual price tag of the Smart Ultra 6, you could be forgiven for thinking that Vodafone have compromised on the camera but while that is somewhat correct, on a whole, the camera is adequate for most uses.

The handset sports a 13MP rear camera and uses the stock camera app to deliver an easy-to-use yet feature-rich interface. With a simple swipe next to the shutter button, you can switch between Manual, Auto and the various modes, which include the useful Filters, Multi-Exposure and HDR modes. Overall camera performance is pretty good and although some images do come out a little noisier than they seem in the viewfinder, the handset does produce images that should keep most users happy.

The 13MP camera also offers Full HD video capture at 30 frames per second and along with the ability to shoot at various resolutions, there’s also a time-lapse feature letting you create excellent videos from the handset and focus lock allowing to keep the camera locked on a particular subject when recording a video. When connected to the front 5MP camera, the video recording drops to a maximum of 720p HD but this still delivers good enough selfies and videos for most use cases, including video conferencing.

While the Smart Ultra 6 doesn’t have the most impressive camera, it does deliver a very practical and usable camera that produces impressive photos. Again it’s worth remembering that the price and target market of the Smart Ultra 6 mean the bells and whistles found in the camera on more expensive smartphones aren’t offered in order to keep the overall price tag reasonable. Compared to other handsets in the same target market, the Smart Ultra 6 has arguably the best camera in the low-end market.

Software

As mentioned, Vodafone have restrained from really developing the software on the Smart Ultra 6 and as long as you like stock Android, you’ll find the software meets your needs. Most carriers tend to add to the software experience – most of the time they add a lot of bloatware – but Vodafone’s decision ensures that performance is smooth and snappy.

The result of no additions apart from a few preloaded apps that can be disabled or uninstalled is that some things don’t seem quite right. Although this is a stock Android problem and not a Vodafone issue, the lack of customisation in the app drawer and the very basic home screen management may alienate Android users who are considering switching from an OEM device. This is a shame as the overall experience is otherwise very impressive and the stock software means the handset remains fast and punctual even after adding lots of data and applications.

One thing that might be a particular issue going forward is future updates as carriers are often quite slow with (or never bother to release) updates for their own-branded devices. Given that the Smart Ultra 6 runs Android 5.0.2 Lollipop out of the box, this isn’t necessarily an immediate problem but may become something of an issue when the next Android M OS is released towards the end of the year. One factor behind the decision to switch to stock Android over a customised ROM could be so that Vodafone are able to deliver timely updates but this remains to be seen.

Gallery

Pricing and final thoughts

Throughout this review, we’ve touched on the price tag but as yet, we haven’t revealed it and there’s a very good reason; the price tag is simply unbelievable. Considering that rivals such as the OnePlus One and Huawei Honor 6 Plus offer similar specs but cost between £250 ($390) and £300 ($470), the Smart Ultra 6’s price tag of just £125 ($195) without a contract is simply outstanding.

Most carrier branded devices aim to offer a relatively good experience at an affordable or reasonable price but do compromise in several places yet the Smart Ultra 6 doesn’t and instead, Vodafone have added the best specs that could possibly have been used while keeping the handset affordable.

While it may not offer the marketing gimmicks and additional features that allow Vodafone to shout about the handset, the Smart Ultra 6 quietly and unassumingly goes about its role of providing an excellent experience and if you’re in the market for an affordable large-screen handset, look no further than Vodafone’s latest smartphone.

there’s a new king in town and the Smart Ultra 6 could have a long and fruitful reign

It may cost you $10-$15 to unlock it for use on any carrier but the price tag and feature set combine to deliver the most impressive low-cost smartphone experience ever made. Many thought the Motorola Moto G was the low-cost smartphone king but this has been dethroned as there’s a new king in town and the Smart Ultra 6 could have a long and fruitful reign.

Another day and another carrier device, this time from the UK’s largest carrier; EE‘s latest own-brand device definitely pushes the boundaries of affordable devices and is aimed specifically at the entry-level Pay As you Go (PAYG) market.

The Rook launches today and is priced at £49 for new customers (plus a mandatory £10 top-up) and £39 for new customers and EE is calling it “the UK’s lowest priced 4G smartphone” which is technically correct as it costs £1 less than the Vodafone Smart Turbo 4 on PAYG. EE estimate that 44 percent of PAYG customers spend up to £50 on a smartphone and the Rook is designed to offer the UK’s only 4G experience at that price point

What do you get for your money? Aside from double-speed 4G, you’ll get a 4-inch 480×800 pixel display, 1GB RAM, 8GB storage, a MediaTek 64-bit quad-core 1GHz processor and a 1500mAh battery. Also onboard is a 5MP rear camera sans flash and autofocus and a VGA front camera.

The specs certainly won’t wow you but they definitely push the boundaries of what you can expect at the sub-£50 price point. The Rook runs Android 5.1 Lollipop, although we’re not sure how well it will run on the low-end hardware.

Sharon Meadows, Director of Devices at EE, said:

At EE, we believe everyone should have access to 4G and the experiences it offers on the go. The Rook provides a great 4G smartphone at a compelling price – allowing even more people to enjoy the benefits of our superfast mobile network from high speed web browsing and downloads to gaming and streaming.

EE’s decision to produce a budget entry-level device is certainly interesting given that both EE and rival Vodafone have – recently until now – focused on producing the best devices possible at an acceptable price. However, a tactic successfully implemented by some OEMs is producing entry-level devices to capture some of the lucrative volume market and the Rook is EE’s attempt to do the same.

Once upon a time, the UK market was dominated by own-brand devices from the major networks. However, over the past decade, these devices faded out to become nothing more than bit-part players in the low end market. However, the market is changing and the Vodafone Smart Ultra 6 could herald a new era of smart, disruptive own-brand smartphones where carriers put their names on smartphones that are made by third-party companies you’ve most likely never heard of.

The Smart Ultra 6 doesn’t really fit this as it’s made by ZTE, a Chinese manufacturer who certainly knows how to make smartphones. While the design isn’t the most revolutionary, it’s the specs list and price tag where the Smart Ultra 6 could be this year’s biggest challengers to the mid-range market.

Just how good is this handset though and should other companies be worried? Let’s take a closer look in my hands-on first impressions.

Design

The Vodafone Smart Ultra 6 looks like it “borrowed” its design from Apple’s phablet, the iPhone 6 Plus. There’s no removable back cover or battery and the edges are rounded in a way that certainly reminds you of the large iPhone. The key problem with the Smart Ultra 6 design however, is that it’s free of any design inspiration whatsoever. It is a grey slab that – although it is powerful – is just another grey slab and some of the design decisions are peculiar at best.

On the back is a metallic plastic that stands no chance of ever passing off as metal and despite being a unibody, Vodafone and ZTE have strangely added contours to replicate the seam found on non-unibody devices.

Bizarre it certainly is but it’s the worst part of the phone as ZTE – who clearly know how to make mobile devices – have delivered a handset that is functional and solid. It’s made from plastic, feels solid in the hand and doesn’t flex or creak. Given the handset’s price tag, the fact it doesn’t appear to have any structural problems is certainly impressive.

On the right of the Smart Ultra 6, there’s the volume and power keys along with the micro SIM card tray. The volume buttons themselves are a slightly different colour to the back cover, provide ample feedback and are easy enough to find without looking at the phone.

On the back, the Smart Ultra 6 has a 13MP camera and single-LED flash in the top left corner, a Vodafone logo in the middle and an external speaker in the lower-right edge which supposedly offers impressive audio playback (something we will definitely be testing). The camera comes with autofocus and Full HD 1080p video recording at 30 frames per second while the 5MP front camera supports HD video as well.

The Vodafone Smart Ultra 6 looks a bit boring, there’s no denying, but as we mentioned, it’s not entering a beauty pageant. The key consideration has been to ensure the handset remains affordable and Vodafone and ZTE have certainly achieved this.

Specs & price

This is where the Vodafone Smart Ultra 6 stands out from the rest of the handsets at this price point; it currently costs just £125 (approx. $197) free of any contract and has specs that will rival smartphones costing more than double the price tag.

The Smart Ultra 6 is a rebrand of the ZTE Blade S6 and Blade S6 Plus with a few changes, the main one being an upgrade of the display to Full HD from 720p on ZTE’s devices. The front of the Smart Ultra 6 has a 5.5 inch Full HD 1080p screen that offers 401 pixels per inch density. From first glance, the handset has impressive viewing angles and offers deep blacks with vibrant colours. The display is topped with toughened glass and while it’s certainly not as durable as Gorilla Glass 3, it should still be durable enough for daily usage.

The bezels all around the screen makes this handset pretty difficult to use in one hand and while Vodafone could have tightened the profile up with smaller bezels, this would have undoubtedly increased the price of the handset; good design doesn’t come cheap and this goes against the philosophy of the Smart Ultra 6. Despite the large bezels, the Smart Ultra 6 still boasts an impressive screen-to-body ratio of 70.3 percent, which is larger than the iPhone 6 Plus.

Beneath the display, the Smart Ultra 6 features three capacity on-screen keys (Back, Home and Recent Apps) and these all light up blue which looks a little disjointed. However, the home button lights up, letting you know when there’s an unread notification for you to check, which will definitely come in handy.

Smart Ultra 6 is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 octa-core processor with four Cortex-A53 cores clocked at 1.5GHz and four more clocked at 1.0GHz. It’s accompanied by 2GB RAM with 16GB internal storage, which can be expanded by up to 64GB using a microSD card.

Other notable specs of the Smart Ultra 6 include a 3000mAh non-removable battery, Wi-Fi n, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS and FM Radio. The handset runs on Android 5.1 Lollipop and from first glance, it appears that Vodafone’s ROM only adds a few preloaded applications – which can be disabled or uninstalled – to an otherwise stock-like experience.

First impressions

Yes, the Smart Ultra 6 is dull and not likely to win any design awards or make your friends jealous. At least, not until you tell them about just how much it costs. At a price of £125 ($197), the Smart Ultra 6 is significantly cheaper than anything else offering the same specs and while the design isn’t inspiring, the whole experience certainly will.

If you don’t mind being on Vodafone (or paying an small additional fee to unlock the handset, either through Vodafone or third-party services) and need a phone that will do everything you want it to, my first instinct is to recommend the Smart Ultra 6. Naturally, using a phone for a few minutes isn’t enough to provide a solid recommendation so you’ll need to wait for the full review for that but this is one smartphone that others should stand up and take notice of.

While manufacturers often design with the bottom line of price and profit in mind, it seems that Vodafone is making virtually nothing on this handset, which provides reassurance that you can get value for money. If you need a powerful, impressive handset to replace your existing broken or mislaid device, the Smart Ultra 6 will certainly tick every box and the price is low enough to appeal to all users.

64-bit processors are certainly a mainstream option now on Android devices, and the P7000 is no exception with its octa-core 64-bit processor from MediaTek. But there is more to the P7000 than just a multi-core 64-bit CPU. Supporting the CPU is a hefty 3GB of RAM and a 16 core Mali-T760MP GPU. Plus there is the 360 degree fingerprint reader, and the Full HD display, but I am getting ahead of myself here!

I got hold of the P7000 a few days ago and I have been putting it through its paces, and this is what I found out.

Specs

As well as its octa-core Cortex-A53 based processor, the Elephone P7000 has a 5.5 inch Full HD display, and runs Android 5.0 Lollipop. Here are the full specs:

Display

5.5” Full HD IPS 1920 x 1080.

Processor

1.7 GHz, octa-core MediaTek MTK6752, 64-bit, Cortex-A53

GPU

ARM MALI-T760MP

RAM

3GB

Storage

16GB, microSD card slot, up to 64GB

Camera

13 Megapixel Rear Camera (SONY IMX214 f/2.0), 5MP Front Camera

Battery

3450 mAh

Connectivity

GPS, microUSB 2.0, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth

Networks

GSM, 3G, 4G LTE

Software

Android 5.0 with Google Play.

Dimensions

155.8 x 76.3 x 8.9 mm

SIM slots

Dual-SIM: SIM + Micro SIM

Design

In an attempt to distinguish itself from the myriad of plastic low-end phones coming out of China, Elephone has put some extra effort into the the design of the P7000. First of all it includes a metal bezel which instantly gives the phone a high-end look and feel. The bezel is made of Magnalium, which Elephone says has “great strength and lightness.” I hadn’t heard of this particular alloy before, but a bit of quick research reveals that it is a aluminium alloy with magnesium and small amounts of copper, nickel, and tin. Although more expensive than aluminium, it is indeed known for its strength and low density. Elephone point out that the use of a metal bezel means the P7000 “will not bend in your pocket” and that Magnalium also has good electromagnetic shielding characteristics.

Another interesting aspect of the P7000’s design is its range of colors. Out is the standard black, and in are gold, white and cool grey!

On the front of the device is the 5.5 inch , Full HD display, the front facing camera, a earpiece and the home key. Integrated into the home key is a breathing, pulsing LED which can be configured in the software to change color when you have notifications, messages, and calls. On the left and right of the home key are the menu and back keys respectively, but there aren’t any actual markings on the phone. However this is less troubling than you might think since I already know where the buttons should be, and I just tap instinctively. However for new users coming to Android for the first time this might be a little difficult.

Down the right-hand side is the power button, while the volume rocker is on the left. Both are easily accessible when the phone is held in your left hand.

On the top you will find the 3.5mm headphone jack and the micro-USB port. On the bottom are two speaker grills, however there is only one speaker. Flipping the phone over, you will see the prominent Elephone logo, the camera lens, the flash, and the fingerprint reader.

Display

The 5.5 inch display on the P7000 is OK, but not brilliant. It is an IPS display with a resolution of 1920 by 1080. That works out to 400 ppi. Overall the definition is excellent, but the color reproduction is fair to middling, with colors lacking vibrancy and the whites seeming pale. Having said that the viewing angles are great. The display is reasonable when used indoors, however I found that it could do with being a bit brighter for outdoor use on sunny days.

As with most displays, the lacks can really only be noticed when you place the phone next to another device with a better display. However when used in isolation the display is more than adequate, just not stunning!

It is also worth mentioning that in the box is a toughened glass screen protector. Not a plastic film which you stick on the display, but an actual piece of Gorilla Glass 3. The only downside is that you need to stick it on the phone yourself!

Performance

At the heart of the P7000 is the MediaTek MT6752. It has an octa-core Cortex-A53 based processor which is coupled with a Mali-T760 GPU. A quad-core version of the same processor can be found in the P6000. The Mali-T760 is certainly a powerful GPU and while the Cortex-A53 has a lower performance than the Cortex-A15, the Cortex-A17 and even the Cortex-A9, it is a good entry point into 64-bit computing and it works well with Android 5.0 Lollipop.

The supplied version of Lollipop is basically stock Android with the standard launcher and an app drawer!

One key thing about the Cortex-A53 is that it is ARM’s super power efficient 64-bit processor. The MT6752 uses eight of these Cortex-A53 cores, all clocked at 1.7GHz.

My experience of using the P7000 is that the overall processing package is fast. The UI is smooth and rapid, and multitasking is a breeze due to the 3GB of on-board RAM. Overall the P7000 handled everything I asked of it including gaming and video.

In terms of benchmarks, the P7000 managed to chalk up 53.4 frames per second on Epic Citadel in High Quality mode, and 40.1 frames per second in Ultra High Quality mode. AnTuTu gives the P7000 a score of 45034, and it managed a score of 6234 on 3D Mark – Ice Storm Extreme.

Hardware

The phone comes with a 3450 mAh battery, which is a great size for this device. Since the P7000 has a 5.5 inch display then it makes sense for Elephone to use that space for a bigger battery and I am glad to see that it didn’t try to go down the ultra-thin path and sacrifice battery capacity.

What my testing showed is that the battery is great. The battery will last all day (from morning to evening) without any problems. I ran my customary set of tests. On one charge you will be able to play intensive 3D games for at least 5 hours. GameBench shows that Riptide GP will run for almost 5 hours. For those into multimedia, you can get about 5.5 hours of YouTube streaming in Full HD.

The phone has a single speaker on the bottom edge and overall I was quite impressed with the sound quality since this is a mid-range phone. However, don’t expect the same fidelity as a high-end flagship phone. Music can sound “tinny” and in general there is a lack of depth.

The P7000 is a dual SIM phone that offers quad-band GSM, which means 2G will work just about anywhere in the world; quad-band 3G, on 850, 900, 1900 and 2100MHz; and quad-band 4G LTE on 800/1800/2100 and 2600MHz. The 3G and 4G will work in lots of countries around the world, especially in Europe and Asia. In the USA you should get 3G coverage on AT&T and possibly on T-Mobile (as only one of the needed frequencies is supported), but no 4G.

The device comes with 16GB of flash and has a micro-SD card slot which can accept cards up to 64GB.

The GPS performance is fair. The device is able to get a lock outdoors and it can even get a lock indoors, however the indoor lock seems to fluctuate a lot. There were some moments when the lock wasn’t very accurate while I was using Google Maps outdoors, however there was also a thunderstorm brewing, so it is hard to tell who was to blame, the phone or the storm! For driving, I tested the P7000 with Nokia Here maps and Google Maps and I was able to use the turn-by-turn navigation without any problems.

It is worth mentioning that the P7000 doesn’t have a gyroscope sensor (but it does have an accelerator) and the result is that you can’t use the phone with Google Cardboard or other VR applications.

In terms of internal storage, the device comes with 16GB of flash and has a micro-SD card slot which can accept cards up to 64GB. Thankfully, unlike other MediaTek based devices, the internal storage isn’t divided up, you get access to the whole lot, which is around 12GB – once you leave space for Android etc.

Camera

This phone has a 13MP rear facing camera and a 5MP front facing camera. The sensor in the rear facing camera is the SONY IMX 214 and Elephone has coupled it with a large f/2.0 aperture lens. Overall the pictures are crisp, but they seem to lack punch even in good outdoor lighting. Using HDR can help in some situations, but it isn’t a cure all.

However the low-light pictures are much better than I was anticipating, the combination of the f/2.o aperture and the support for ISO 1600 means that you are able to take pictures without the flash for many indoor situations. However the laws of physics still demand a certain amount of light to enter through the lens, so don’t expect wonders.

For those of you into video, the rear camera can capture in Full HD at 30 frames per second.

The included camera app at first glance looks like the standard AOSP app, however it seems to offer a few more features beyond HDR and Panorama. For example, the camera options include anti-shake, gesture shot, smile shot, 40 picture continuous shooting, and auto scene detection. The video options include noise reduction, EIS, and time lapse mode.

You can also change things like the exposure level, the scene type, the white balance, face detection and so on. Overall, the app is fairly comprehensive and includes some special modes like object/motion tracking.

Here are some sample shots, judge for yourself:

Software

The P7000 runs stock Android 5.0 Lollipop. You get access to Google Play and all of Google’s services like YouTube, Gmail and Maps, however most of them are not installed by default.

The device supports Over-the-Air (OTA) updates and since its official launch Elephone has made at least one new firmware release. However the default firmware on my review device had a glitch in that while it says it supports OTA updates, it actually doesn’t. The phone checks for updates and even downloads the new software but when it comes to actually updating it I get an error, “Your system was damaged, wireless update disabled!”

Although it sounds serious the phone does actually continue to function normally. The solution is to download a new firmware and re-flash the phone. After the re-flash everything works as expected. A few days after I flashed the new firmware, Elephone released another OTA patch and this one downloaded and installed without any problems.

The supplied version of Lollipop is basically stock Android with the standard launcher and an app drawer! There are a few extras included for things like the fingerprint reader; the pulsing notification LED, known in the Settings as the Harlequin LED Notification; some Smart Unlock functionality, which unlocks the phone when you are near a trusted Bluetooth device; and the screen-off wake gestures, like double tap and ‘C’ for camera etc.

The fingerprint reader is located on the back of the phone just below the camera. It is a 360 degree reader which means it doesn’t matter how you place your finger on the sensor, it will still be able to read it and recognize it. This is particularly important since most of the time you will use the reader while using the phone which means you can’t see the reader and depending on how you are holding the phone your finger will be placed on the sensor at different angles.

Overall the sensor works well. The number of misreads is actually quite low and it will only grant authorization to store fingerprints (i.e. it isn’t easy to fool). The initial set up is quite easy and just requires you to place your finger on the reader several times until the fingerprint is registered. The default security mechanism is the fingerprint unlock, which only unlocks the phone with your fingerprint. You can also use the fingerprint scanner to lock individual apps, galleries, messages etc.

Price and Wrap up

To sum up, the P7000 is a 4G LTE enabled smartphone, with a Full HD display and a octa-core 64-bit CPU. The performance is great, and it is good to see Android 5.0 Lollipop here. You can pick up an Elephone P7000 for around $230, which when you consider the overall specification of the device, is a good price.

The Bottom Line

Pros

Nice 5.5 inch screenGood performance4G LTEmicroSD and dual-SIM

Cons

GPS unreliableBattery life is OK, but could be better

Bottom Line

An interesting 5.5 inch device, with a nice 64-bit processor and a good GPU. The full HD resolution works well for this display size and having 2GB of RAM is good. The GPS is unreliable, which could be a deal breaker for some.

64-bit processors are becoming increasingly mainstream on Android devices, and the Aurora E04 an example of how these new SoCs will be utilized by Asian OEMs. The Ecoo Aurora E04 is a 5.5 inch device with an octa-core 64-bit Cortex-A53 based processor. It costs just $190, which is quite surprising when you consider the screen size and the mid-range specs.

In short, the Ecoo Aurora E04 is 64-bit 4G LTE smartphone with a full HD display, 2GB of RAM and a built-in fingerprint reader. Here are the full specs:

Display

5.5 inch, IPS, 1920 x 1080 pixels

Processor

MediaTek MT6752 1.7GHz octa-core Cortex-53, 64-bit

GPU

ARM Mali-T760

RAM

2GB

Storage

16GB, microSD card slot, up to 32GB

Camera

16 MP rear camera, 8 MP front camera

Battery

3000 mAh

Connectivity

GPS, microUSB 2.0, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth

Networks

GSM; 3G: 900/2100 MHz; 4G LTE: 800/1800/2100/2600 MHz

Software

Android 4.4 with Google Play. Android 5.0 coming soon.

Dimensions

156.7 x 77.5 x 9.3 mm, 160g

SIM slots

Dual-SIM (micro SIM and normal SIM）

Moving on to the design and build, the phone is quite light at just 160g and surprising easy to hold considering its 5.5 inch display. I have always felt most comfortable using a phone with a 5.0 inch display, and the E04 Aurora is certainly larger than the average 5 inch device. At 156.7 mm tall, it is around 1.0 to 1.5 cm longer than a 5 inch device, however at 77.5 mm wide, it is only a few millimeters wider your average 5 incher. This means that, for me at least, it fits comfortably in my hand, and I don’t feel that I am performing any more finger gymnastics than I would with a smaller phone.

My test unit is a white model, and so the coloring is chrome and white. There is also a black model available. Around the phone is a chrome colored band, which is made of plastic. The back cover uses a textured plastic which aids the grip (slightly). According to the specs, the bezels are just 2.5 mm which means that the phone has a screen to body ratio of 78%.

To supplement the narrow bezels, the Ecoo Aurora uses 2.5D glass. Sometimes these terms can be used without much justification, however it is true that the glass on front does curve at the edges and is rounded in the corners. However, I have a sneaking suspicion that this is achieved more with a kind of factory fitted glass screen protector than by the use of expensive glass tech. The reason I say it is because there is a little gap around the ear-piece that is reminiscent of the way a screen protector is overlaid on a display. Of course, I could be wrong.

As for the rest of the front, there is the full HD 5.5 inch display, the front facing camera, a set of sensors, and the capacitive keys. The home button is a physical button and contains a built-in fingerprint reader.

Down the right-hand side are the power button and the volume rocker. Both are easily accessible when the phone is held in your left hand, and I prefer the position used by Ecoo with the power button above the volume rocker, than vice versa.

On the top you will find the 3.5mm headphone jack and the micro USB port. On the bottom edge are the speaker grills and the microphone. Flipping the phone over, you will see the prominent ECOO logo, the dual LED flash and the camera lens.

The 5.5 inch display on the Aurora E04 is very good, especially considering the price point of this device. It is an IPS display with a full HD resolution, i.e. 1920 x 1080. That works out to 400 dpi.

Overall the color reproduction is good and the definition is great, as are the viewing angles. I also found the display to be quite bright, in a good sense. Leaving the brightness on Auto worked well, but whenever I did force the display to maximum brightness it was too bright for indoor use. This is of course a good thing as it meant that the display is easier to read when outdoors.

At the heart of the Aurora E04 is the MediaTek MT6752. It has a octa-core Cortex-A53 based processor which is coupled with a Mali-T760 GPU. This is the first time I have tested a phone with this combination of CPU and GPU, and overall I have been very impressed. A quad-core or octa-core Cortex-A53 processor coupled with a Mali-T760 GPU will likely become a popular offering from Asian OEMs during 2015.

The Cortex-A53 is ARM’s super power efficient variant from its first generation of 64-bit processors. The MT6752 uses eight Cortex-A53 cores all clocked at 1.7GHz. According to Ecoo the MT6752 is twice as fast as as MediaTek’s quad-core Cortex-A7 based processors, but with 30 percent less battery consumption.

My experience of using the Aurora E04 is that the processor package is fast. The UI is smooth and rapid, and in fact the E04 has one of the fastest UI that I have recently seen on a Chinese OEM phone. The Aurora E04 handled everything I asked of it including gaming and video.

In terms of benchmarks, the Aurora E04 managed to chalk up 39.1 frames per second on Epic Citadel in Ultra High Quality mode and 54.9 in High Quality mode. According to GameBench, the Aurora E04 can run Riptide GP at over 50 fps, while Shadow Fight 2 runs at 51 fps. These are all excellent scores and reflect my experience with the device.

The phone comes with a 3000 mAh battery, which is about what I would expected for a phone of this size and price. My testing revealed some interesting numbers. Before I started testing the phone I left it to one side while I worked on some other videos. When the battery went flat I would charge it again and so on. When I finally got around to testing this unit I just started using it as it was. The final battery numbers for that first period of real usage was 3 days and 18 hours, with 3 hours of screen time. Once my testing was fully underway I was getting around 1 day and 5 hours, with 2.5 hours of screen time.

I also ran my customary set of tests. On one charge you will be able to play intensive 3D games for about 3 hours. GameBench shows that Tower Madness will run for almost 5 hours. For those into multimedia, you can get about 4.5 hours of YouTube streaming from this device on one charge.

The phone has two speaker grills on its bottom edge, however there is only one speaker. Covering the right grill muffles the sound as you would expect, however the left grill appears only to be for ascetics.

The Aurora E04 is a dual SIM phone that offers quad-band GSM, which means 2G will work just about anywhere in the world; dual-band 3G, on 900 and 2100MHz; and quad-band 4G LTE on 800/1800/2100 and 2600MHz. The 3G and 4G will work in lots of countries around the world, especially in Europe and Asia. In the USA you will get 2G coverage, but that is about it.

Unfortunately the GPS performance isn’t very reliable. The device is able to get a lock outdoors, however indoors a lock can’t be achieved. But the main problem seems to be that the lock either isn’t stable or it isn’t very accurate. According to GPS Test the precision is over 20 feet (or 6 meters). This leaves a big enough margin for error that navigation software like Google Maps or Nokia Here don’t always know which road you are on.

The Aurora E04 comes with 2GB of RAM, which is good for a phone in this price range. In terms of internal storage, the device comes with 16GB of flash and has a micro-SD card slot which can accept cards up to 32GB. Unfortunately the internal storage is divided into two partitions called Internal Storage and Phone Storage. The first is for apps and the second for your personal data. The good news is that the first partition is almost 6GB which should be sufficient to install quite a few apps. The other bit of good news is that apps can be moved from the Internal Storage to the Phone Storage from with Settings->Apps.

This phone has a 16MP rear facing camera and a 8MP front facing camera. The pictures are crisp and the color reproduction is good. The included camera app, which looks to be the standard AOSP app, offers a few interesting features including HDR and Panorama. In the settings you can change things like the exposure level, the scene type, the white balance, face detection and so on. Overall, the app is fairly comprehensive but it doesn’t have any advanced modes or filters. You can also install and use third-party apps including Google’s camera app.

Here are some sample shots, judge for yourself:

The Aurora E04 runs stock Android 4.4.4. You get access to Google Play and all of Google’s services like YouTube, Gmail and Maps. Interestingly, the device is rooted by default and comes with Chainfire’s SuperSU pre-installed.

The fingerprint scanner is incorporated into the home button and the software allows you to set the screen to unlock only with your fingerprint. Overall the scanner and the unlock mechanism worked well. The number of misreads was quite low and I kept the feature activated for a while. I only deactivated it, not because the scanner wasn’t capable enough, but because having to swipe my finger over the scanner to unlock the screen was becoming a bit monotonous.

As for upgrades, Ecoo has promised to release an over-the-air update to upgrade the phone to Android 5.0 lollipop. There is no actual official release date, however it is expected soon.

To sum up, the Aurora E04 is a 4G LTE enabled smartphone, with a full HD display and a octa-core 64-bit CPU. The performance is good for this price point, and the promise of Android 5.0 Lollipop is quite enticing. You can pick up an Ecoo Aurora E04 for around $190, which when you consider the overall specification of the device, is a great price.

If there is one thing that generates the most complaints from smartphone users it is battery life. Many devices on the market today, sadly even flagship devices, just don’t offer the battery life needed. Smartphones have a bewildering array of features and us poor users are prone to using them! When combined with the push to make devices thinner (if not smaller) then it is the poor old battery that seems to take a back seat.

If you are looking for a phone with a big battery then maybe the Elephone P5000 is the phone just for you.

In short, the Elephone P5000 is powered by an octa-core Cortex-A7 based processor, has a 5 inch, full HD display, and runs Android 4.4 KitKat. Here are the full specs:

Display

5” full HD IPS 1920 x 1080 pixels

Processor

MediaTek MT6592 Octa core Cortex-A7 at 1.7GHz

GPU

ARM Mali-450 MP4

RAM

2GB

Storage

16GB, microSD card slot, up to 64GB

Camera

16 MP rear camera, 8 MP front camera

Battery

5350 mAh

Connectivity

GPS, microUSB 2.0, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth, NFC

Networks

GSM, 3G: 900/1900/2100 MHz

Software

Android 4.4 with Google Play.

Dimensions

146 x 73.6 x 9.3 mm, 206g

SIM slots

Dual-SIM

Because of the large battery, the P5000 is thicker than many of today’s devices, however it isn’t overly thick. The specs say the phone is 9.3mm thick, but my measurements set it closer to over 10mm. Although over 10mm may sound thick, it is still thinner than popular phones like the Moto G and about the same thickness as a Nexus 6. But of course, with a 5000+ mAh battery.

Like many of Elephone’s recent devices, the device uses lots of dark colors in combination with rounded edges and silver colored trim. There is a silver colored band around the edge of the phone, and silver can be seen on the home button, on the logo, as well as around the camera lens.

On the front is the 5 inch , full HD display, the front facing camera, and a set of capacitive keys which flank the home button. The capacitive keys light up when pressed. The home button also houses the built-in fingerprint reader.

Down the right-hand side are the volume rocker and the power button. Both are easily accessible when the phone is held in your left hand. On the top you will find the 3.5mm headphone jack and the micro USB port. On the bottom edge are the speaker grills. Flipping the phone over, you will see the prominent Elephone logo, the flash and the camera lens.

In terms of build quality, the phone feels solid and robust enough, however the power button on my test unit is slightly inset, giving it a slightly spongy feel when pressed. At first I feared that the button was actually broken, however it did function as expected. Also the home button seems to not always detect that it has been pressed. I can’t tell if this is software or hardware, but it was a little annoying at times.

The 5 inch display on the P5000 is good. It is an IPS display with a resolution of 1920 by 1080. That works out to 440 dpi. The color reproduction is faithful, however when placed next to a phone with a better screen I noticed that the whites are a little “dirty” and lacking in punch. However it isn’t something that I noticed while using the phone, only when doing a direct screen comparison. It is likely just be the color temperature of the display.

At the heart of the P5000 is the MediaTek MT6592. It has an octa-core Cortex-A7 based processor which is coupled with a Mali-450MP GPU. The Mali-450 is getting quite old now and only provides OpenGL ES 2.0, and not 3.0. However it still performs reasonably well for 3D gaming.

My experience with the P5000 was pleasant. The user interface responds well and I didn’t notice any lags or stutters. Swiping and general navigation was always smooth and fast. For everyday usage like browsing the web, reading email, checking my calendar etc, I have no complaints at all. And while the Mali-450MP is certainly an older GPU, it was able to handle games like Riptide GP2 without any problems.

As for the benchmarks, the P5000 managed to chalk up 54.3 frames per second on Epic Citadel in High Quality mode, and scored an unverified 31749 on AnTuTu.

One other thing worth mentioning about the CPU/GPU package is that when pushed hard the device becomes quite warm. I am used to a little warmth on the back of a phone after playing 3D games, however in this particular case the front of the phone around the ear piece also heats up. Someone called me while I was playing some games on the device. When I placed it to my ear it was quite uncomfortable. Thankfully the heat dissipates quite quickly, but it is something to be aware of.

The star attraction of the P5000 is of course its 5350 mAh battery. That is a big battery for a phone! To put it into perspective, the Nexus 7 (2013) tablet has a 3950 mAh battery, the Nexus 6 has a 3220 mAH battery, the Nexus 5 has a 2300 mAh battery, and the Moto G (2nd gen) has a 2070 mAh battery. In other words, the battery in the P5000 is bigger than the battery in some 7 inch tablets, and at least twice the size of the battery in many popular 5 inch phones.

I charged the phone overnight in Friday and started using it over the weekend. The battery lasted until late on Monday morning. That was a total of 2 days and 6 hours, with a on screen time of 5.25 hours. Wi-Fi and 3G were on all the time, as was sync (I was receiving all my emails etc). There is also about 90 minutes of game playing in the mix.

I ran some individual tests which basically confirmed my weekend testing. According to GameBench you can play 2D games for around 6 hours on one charge, while intensive 3D games will work for around 4 hours. Alternatively you can get about 5 hours of constant YouTube streaming over Wi-Fi.

The phone has two speaker grills on its bottom edge, however they don’t seem to have any actual relationship to the internal speaker! Covering both grills only muffles the sound slightly and the speaker appears to be buried in the phone’s innards somewhere. Taking off the battery cover doesn’t reveal any obvious speaker bits. Pure audiophiles will likely be concerned about sound fidelity, however the advantage of this setup is that the phone sounds the same regardless of how the device is positioned: on its back, on its front, with the grills covered, and so on.

The P5000 is a dual SIM phone that offers quad-band GSM, which means 2G will work just about anywhere in the world; and tri-band 3G, on 900, 1900 and 2100MHz. The 3G will work in lots of countries around the world, especially in Europe and Asia. In the USA you will get 2G coverage but that is about it.

The GPS performance is excellent. The device is able to get a lock easily outdoors and can even get a lock indoors. I tested the P5000 with Nokia Here maps and I was able to use the turn-by-turn navigation without any problems.

The P5000 comes with 2GB of RAM, which is to be expected for a phone in this price range. In terms of internal storage, the device comes with 16GB of flash and has a micro-SD card slot, which can accept cards up to 64GB. Thankfully, unlike other MediaTek based devices, the internal storage isn’t divided up, you get access to the whole lot, which is around 13GB.

This phone has a 16MP rear facing camera and a 8MP front facing camera. The pictures are crisp and the color reproduction is good. The sensor struggles a bit in low-light situations, but for outdoor shots I was quite impressed. The inclusion of an 8MP front facing camera is good news for those who like selfies, however I did find the front camera tends to over expose pictures.

The included camera app, which looks to be the standard AOSP app, offers a few interesting features including HDR and Panorama. In the settings you can change things like the exposure level, the scene type, the white balance, face detection and so on. Overall, the app is fairly comprehensive but it doesn’t have any advanced modes or filters. You can also install and use third-party apps including Google’s camera app.

Here are some sample shots, judge for yourself:

The P5000 runs stock Android 4.4.2. You get access to Google Play and all of Google’s services like YouTube, Gmail and Maps. I think the device is rooted by default as it comes with Chainfire’s SuperSU pre-installed. The reason I say “I think” is that the phone received an Over-The-Air (OTA) update within the first day of me getting it, and after the update SuperSU complains that the “su” binaries are no longer installed. My guess is that the OTA removed them and I didn’t check the phone’s root status before the OTA arrived.

The UI is basically what you would expect from stock Android. The launcher has been lightly skinned by Elephone and there are a few additional sections in the settings for Gesture Recognition and for the Finger Scanner [sic]. But those are about the only differences between the supplied version of Android and pure stock Android.

The fingerprint scanner is incorporated into the home button and the software allows you to set the screen to unlock only with your fingerprint. Overall the scanner and the unlock mechanism worked well. The number of misreads was relatively low and I kept the feature activated for a while. I only removed it, not because the scanner wasn’t up to the job, but because having to swipe my finger over the scanner to unlock the screen was becoming a bit tedious.

The Elephone P5000 isn’t the first phone with an extra large battery. Another good example is the THL 5000. I used the THL 5000 as my daily driver for around 6 months, so I have a lot of experience with the device. Both cost around the same price and both share a number of common features: octa-core Cortex-A7 processor, Mali-450MP GPU, 2GB RAM, and 16GB storage.

The differences come down to this: the THL 5000 supports 3G on 850/2100MHz, compared to 900/1900/2100MHz on the P5000; the THL 5000 has a 13MP/5MP camera combo, compared to the 16MP/8MP of the P5000. The THL 5000 has Corning Gorilla Glass, but the P5000 has a fingerprint scanner. After that I guess it comes down to personal preference with regards to the styling, and the brand.

To sum up, the P5000 is a 3G enabled smartphone, with a full HD display and an octa-core 32-bit CPU. The battery is a big plus point, and companies like Elephone are certainly pushing the standard feature list upwards. For once, the inclusion of a fingerprint scanner is more than just a gimmick, as it actually works. The over-heating issue might be a problem for some, but if you are aware of it then it can be easily managed.

64-bit processors are on the verge of becoming mainstream on Android devices, and the P6000 is one of the first smartphones from an Asian OEM that uses such a processor. The Elephone P6000 is a 5 inch device with a quad-core 64-bit Cortex-A53 based processor. If you haven’t heard of Elephone, that is because it isn’t that well known in the west (yet). But one thing is for sure, it is a rapidly growing company and the P6000 is a good example of what it can manufacture.

<h2>Specs</h2>

In short, the Elephone P6000 is powered by a quad-core Cortex-A53 based processor, has a 5 inch, 720p display, and runs Android 4.4 KitKat. Here are the full specs:

Display

5” 720p HD IPS 720 x 1280 pixels

Processor

1.5 GHz, quad-core MediaTek MTK6732, 64-bit, Cortex-A53

GPU

ARM MALI-T760

RAM

2GB

Storage

16GB, microSD card slot, up to 64GB

Camera

13 Megapixel Rear Camera, 2MP Front Camera

Battery

2700 mAh

Connectivity

GPS, microUSB 2.0, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth

Networks

GSM, 3G, 4G LTE

Software

Android 4.4 with Google Play. Android 5.0 coming soon.

Dimensions

144.5 x 71.6 x 8.9 mm, 165g

SIM slots

Dual-SIM: 2xMicro SIM

<h2>Design</h2>

Moving on to the design and build, the first thing that struck me about this device was how solid it felt. The weight, the case, and the construction make the device feel sturdy. This is also helped by the thickness. At 8.9m it isn’t ultra-thin (which in my book makes some devices feel too delicate) but it isn’t overly thick either.

In terms of design language, we are talking black and grey with rounded edges. Most of the phone’s exterior is made up of the the back battery cover. There are no separate edges per se, but rather a deep removable casing that includes the edges. Even the volume rocker is part of the back cover.

Interestingly, Elephone has tried to make this a little more elegant by sloping the cover edges downwards at the corners. This gives the side of the phone a slight curved look as the cover slides downwards and the screen starts to take over.

On the front is the 5 inch , 720p display, the front facing camera, and a set of blue capacitive keys on the bottom. The home key glows when used, and also flashes when you have a notification. However, the back and menu keys don’t have a back light.

Down the right-hand side are the volume rocker and the power button. Both are easily accessible when the phone is held in your left hand, however they might be a little too close together. Sometimes I found myself turning the phone off by mistake when I wanted to adjust the volume.

On the top you will find the 3.5mm headphone jack, while on the bottom edge is the micro-USB port. Elephone has placed the port off to one side rather than in the middle. It looks different, but at the end of the day makes no difference – for better or for worse.

Flipping the phone over, you will see the prominent Elephone logo, the speaker grill, the flash and the camera lens.

<h2>Display</h2>

The 5 inch display on the P6000 is very good considering, the price point of this device. It is an IPS display with a resolution of 1280 by 720. That works out to 293 dpi.

Overall the color reproduction is good and the definition is great, as are the viewing angles. Some people like full HD displays for 5 inch devices, however for a budget device, 720p is more than adequate.

<h2>Performance</h2>
At the heart of the P6000 is the MediaTek MT6732. It has a quad-core Cortex-A53 based processor which is coupled with a Mali-T760 GPU. This is the first time I have tested a phone with this combination of CPU and GPU, and overall I have been very impressed. During 2015 this kind of CPU/GPU combination will become the norm for low- and mid-range phones.

The Cortex-A53 is ARM’s super power efficient variant from its first generation of 64-bit processors. The MT6732 uses four Cortex-A53 cores all clocked at 1.5GHz. According to Elephone the MT6732 is 20 percent faster than MediaTek’s octa-core Cortex-A7 based processors, but with 30 percent less battery consumption.

My experience of using the P6000 is that the processor package is fast. The UI is smooth and rapid, in fact it offers the fastest UI that I have personally seen on a Chinese OEM phone. The P6000 handled everything I asked of it including gaming and video.

In terms of benchmarks, the P6000 managed to chalk up 45.5 frames per second on Epic Citadel in Ultra High Quality mode. According to GameBench, the P6000 can run Riptide GP at 54 fps, while Shadow Fight 2 runs at 52 fps. These are all excellent scores and reflect my experience with the device.

<h2>Hardware</h2>

The phone comes with a 2700 mAh battery, which is slightly less than I expected. I guess the rationale is that the 64-bit Cortex-A53 is more power efficient than the 32-bit Cortex-A7. Once you factor in a 720p display, rather than full HD, then the battery should be OK.

What my testing showed is that the battery is OK, but that is all. The battery will last all day (from morning to evening) but it will be running out of juice when you go to bed. On average I was getting around 14 to 15 hours of battery life with around 3.5 hours of screen on time.

I also ran my customary set of tests. On one charge you will be able to play intensive 3D games for at least 3.5 hours. GameBench shows that Riptide GP will run for almost 5 hours. For those into multimedia, you can get about 4.5 hours of YouTube streaming from this device.

The phone has a single speaker on the back of the device. It certainly is loud but don’t expect too much from it. One small irritation is that the speaker is completely flush with the back cover, this means the sound becomes muffled quite easily when placed on a flat surface.

The P6000 is a dual SIM phone that offers quad-band GSM, which means 2G will work just about anywhere in the world; dual-band 3G, on 900 and 2100MHz; and quad-band 4G LTE on 800/1800/2100 and 2600MHz. The 3G and 4G will work in lots of countries around the world, especially in Europe and Asia. In the USA you will get 2G coverage but that is about it.

The GPS performance is excellent. The device is able to get a lock easily outdoors and can even get a lock indoors. I tested the P6000 with Nokia Here maps and I was able to use the turn-by-turn navigation without any problems.

The P6000 comes with 2GB of RAM, which is excellent for a phone in this price range. In terms of internal storage, the device comes with 16GB of flash and has a micro-SD card slot which can accept cards up to 64GB. Thankfully, unlike other MediaTek based devices, the internal storage isn’t divided up, you get access to the whole lot, which is around 12GB – once you leave space for Android etc.

<h2>Camera</h2>

This phone has a 13MP rear facing camera and a 2MP front facing camera. The pictures are crisp and the color reproduction is good. The sensor struggles a bit in low-light situations, but for outdoor shots I was quite impressed.

The included camera app, which looks to be the standard AOSP app, offers a few interesting features including HDR and Panorama. In the settings you can change things like the exposure level, the scene type, the white balance, face detection and so on. Overall, the app is fairly comprehensive but it doesn’t have any advanced modes or filters. You can also install and use third-party apps including Google’s camera app.

Here are some sample shots, judge for yourself:

<h2>Software</h2>

The P6000 runs stock Android 4.4.4. You get access to Google Play and all of Google’s services like YouTube, Gmail and Maps. Interestingly the device is rooted by default and comes with Chainfire’s SuperSU pre-installed.

However, what is more interesting is that Elephone has promised to release an over-the-air update to upgrade the phone to Android 5.0 lollipop. There is no actual official release date, however it is expected soon.

<h2>Price and Wrap up</h2>

To sum up, the P6000 is a 4G LTE enabled smartphone, with a 720p HD display and a quad-core 64-bit CPU. The performance is good for this price point, and the promise of Android 5.0 Lollipop is quite enticing. You can pick up an Elephone P6000 for around $160, which when you consider the overall specification of the device, is a great price.

Fingerprints scanners are becoming a popular addition to smartphones, but generally they are only found on flagship models, well not any more! The Elephone P3000 is a quad-core, 5 inch device with a built-in fingerprint reader. If you haven’t heard of Elephone, it is a rapidly growing Asian OEM based in Hong Kong.

Specs

In short, the Elephone P3000 is powered by a quad-core Cortex-A7 based processor, has a 5 inch, 720p display, and runs Android 4.4 KitKat. Here are the full specs:

Display

5” 720p HD IPS 720 x 1280 pixels

Processor

1.3 GHz, quad-core MediaTek MT6582, Cortex-A7

RAM

1GB

Storage

8GB, microSD card slot, up to 64GB

Camera

13 Megapixel Rear Camera, 5MP Front Camera

Battery

3150 mAh

Connectivity

GPS, microUSB 2.0, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth

Networks

GSM, 3G, 4G LTE

Software

Android 4.4 with Google Play

Dimensions

145 x 87.8 x 8.99 mm, 146g

SIM slots

Dual-SIM: 1x SIM, 1xMicro SIM

Design

The first thing that struck me about this device was its weight. It only weighs 149 grams, which is quite light. When I first picked it up, I actually had to check if it had a battery in it or not. In terms of design language, the theme here is a bold black and silver. The body is black plastic all the way around, peppered with silver for the buttons and the logos. The only other color is the red edge around the section for the camera, flash, and fingerprint reader.

On the front is the 5 inch, 720p display with a set of silver capacitive keys towards the bottom, and a silver earpiece towards the top. There is also the front facing camera and a 4G logo. I have mixed feelings about the prominence of the 4G logo, I guess it is there for those who want to brag about having a phone with 4G LTE connectivity. Honestly, I think the logo should have been placed on the back of the phone, or discarded altogether.

Down the right-hand side is the power button, while on the left is the volume rocker. Both are easily accessible when held in your left hand. On the top you will find the micro-USB port and the 3.5mm headphone jack.

Flipping the phone over, you will see the prominent Elephone logo and a slightly protruding circle for the camera, flash and fingerprint reader. The back cover is made of a matte plastic, almost rubber type material, that does a very good job of repelling fingerprints.

Although the phone is light, it is quite thick. According to my measurement the phone is over 10mm thick. Elephone claim it is just 8.9mm. Either way, it isn’t overly thick, however it does give the phone a slightly dated look.

The 5 inch display on the P3000 is quite good considering the price point of this device. The IPS display comes from JDI and has a resolution of 1280 by 720. That works out to 293 dpi. Overall the color reproduction is good and the definition is great, as are the viewing angles. Some people like full HD displays for 5 inch devices, however I think that for a budget device, 720p is more than adequate.

Performance

At the heart of the P3000 is the MediaTek MTK6582. It has a quad-core Cortex-A7 processor which is coupled with a Mali-400 MP4. These are common specs for low- and mid-range devices coming out of China. The A7 is one of ARM’s most power efficient core designs, however it won’t break any performance records. The same can be said for the Mali-400 GPU.

My experience of using P3000 is that the processor package is more than capable of running the UI without any lag or delays, also everything but the most intense 3D gaming works without any problems. The same can be said for watching locally stored video or video streamed from YouTube.

In terms of benchmarks, the P3000 scored 17,782 on AnTuTu and managed to chalk up 48.4 frames per second on Epic Citadel. According to GameBench, the P3000 can run Riptide GP at 49 fps.

Hardware

The phone comes with a 3150 mAh battery, which is very impressive for a device with only a quad-core A7 processor and a 720p display. My testing confirms that the battery life is good. I ran my customary set of tests. On one charge you will be able to play intensive 3D games for at least 3 hours. GameBench shows that Riptide GP will run for almost 5 hours. For those into multimedia, you can get about 5.5 hours of YouTube streaming from this device, or around 8 hours of watching locally stored video.

The P3000 is a dual SIM phone that offers quad-band GSM, which means 2G will work just about anywhere in the world; quad-band 3G, on 850/900/1900 and 2100 MHz; and quad-band 4G LTE on 800/1800/2100 and 2600MHz. The 3G and 4G will work in lots of countries around the world especially in Europe and Asia. The GPS performance of the P3000 is very middle-of-the-road. It can’t get a signal indoors, but outside it seems to work well enough.

The device comes with 8GB of on-board storage and has a micro-SD card slot which can accept cards up to 64GB. The internal storage on the P3000 is divided in two. The first part is called INTERNAL STORAGE and is 2GB in size. The second part is called PHONE STORAGE and is 4GB. Apps are installed into the 2GB portion and the rest is used for media. If you install a big game like Modern Combat, then the app itself is installed on the 2GB partition but all the data, which is well over 1GB, is installed onto the bigger partition. What this means is that the 2GB will become a limiting factor if you install lots of apps, but it shouldn’t stop you from installing big apps.

Fingerprint Reader

One of the key selling points of this phone is the inclusion of a fingerprint reader. The reader is located on the back of the device below the camera lens. The idea is that you can swipe your finger across the sensor using just one hand.

To use the fingerprint reader you need to register your fingerprint by swiping your finger several times over the sensor. You are also required to set up an alternative password as a way to bypass the fingerprint access. Once the fingerprint has been recorded it can be used to lock the phone. There is also a FingerAppLock app, and a way to use the fingerprint reader as a kind of scroll-wheel to scroll up and down on web pages. The FingerAppLock lets you protect certain apps and only grants access when unlocked via the fingerprint reader.

Unfortunately the fingerprint reader is actually quite hard to use. Registering the fingerprint took loads of swipes of my finger and the process often reset with an error about too many failed attempts to register the fingerprint. The same is also true of using the reader once a fingerprint has been recorded. It would often take several swipes to unlock the phone. If I couldn’t manage it after several attempts I was forced to use the alternative password. All of this became annoying very quickly, and if I was using this phone as my daily driver I guess I wouldn’t use the fingerprint reader.

Camera

This phone has a 13MP rear facing camera and a 5MP front facing camera. The pictures aren’t bad for a device at this price point. The color reproduction is generally good, however in low-light conditions, the colors can be a bit washed out.

The included camera app offers a few interesting features including HDR and Panorama. In the settings you can change things like the exposure level, the scene, the white balance, face detection and so on. Overall it is a fairly comprehensive app but without any advanced modes or filters.

Here are some sample shots, judge for yourself:

Software

The P3000 runs stock Android 4.4.2 and uses a lightly skinned launcher with its own icons for standard apps like Settings, Camera, Clock and so on. Interestingly, the device is rooted by default and comes with Chainfire’s SuperSU pre-installed.

As well as the section for the fingerprint reader, the Settings also has a section for controlling the notification LED. By default the LED will flash blue for missed calls, red for new messages and green for other notifications.

Price and Wrap up

To sum up, the P3000 is a 4G LTE enabled smartphone, with a 720p HD display and a quad-core CPU. The performance is good for this price point, and the camera is better than average for a budget device. However, don’t expect too much from the fingerprint reader. You can pick up an Elephone P3000 for around $150, which when you consider the overall specification of the device, is a great price.